IN FOCUS / COSMO CRANES
TAKING ON THE CRANE DECK MARKET Cranes and Lifting finds out more about the “unsung heroes” of the construction sector – the crane deck market. WITH EVERY HIGH-RISE CONSTRUCTION site featuring them, crane decks are one of the ‘unsung heroes’ of the construction sector. Providing access for materials and equipment, the wear and tear on decks can be considerable. Yet Australian designed, engineered and manufactured decks are making serious inroads into the market. Crane Decks is an Australian owned, designed and manufactured range of crane decks and the Handley brothers, Josh and John, the ‘brains trust’ behind Cosmo Cranes, along with a third business partner, are the driving force for the business. According to Josh Handley, the Crane Decks development was driven by customer demand. “We entered into the crane decks four years because of market requirements and demand for these types of decks. With a safe working limit of 5000kg at 4.5m and one of the largest outboards on the market at 2500kg at 5.25 m, our decks are the largest and lightest retractable decks on the market,” said Handley. Crane Decks have been designed to be modular so if a panel or a rail is damaged, replacement is a fairly straight-forward process. “Our bins also have the largest internal footprint and with the 2.2m decks you can put a brick cage on the deck, open it and unload it from there. With other brands you can’t do that, you can’t unhook in a safe manner because there isn’t enough room. That’s because competitive products are manufactured with an I Beam and we use a C channel and this allows for a larger footprint on the deck,” he said. Another key feature is that the decks 50 / CAL May 2019
Crane Decks are utilised across the construction sector.
are stackable where other products aren’t. This makes it easy to store the decks and to ship them around the country and over seas with eight 2.2m decks fitting to a semi trailer. “Our distribution network is made up of stand-alone companies and agents for Crane Decks and each provide a full including service including sales, hire, install, service and support. “We have between 600 and 700
Crane Decks Australia wide and to help keep the maintenance low, the rails have an option to be galvanised and are easily replaced if damaged due to the modular design,” he said. With every high rise project needing decks, Crane Decks are utilised across a broad spectrum of the construction sector from small builders, who might only hire one or two, though to multinational companies like Multiplex JQZ/Parkview/ICON/Built that will
